08.18.07
Posted in Law of Attraction, Make Your Life Easier, Manifestation, Paths to Bliss
at 11:48 pm
So you’ve been working hard reaching for better thoughts and facing your fears. Or maybe you’ve been working hard at thinking about reaching better thoughts and facing your fears. But things still kind of suck, but you don’t want to think about how they suck because that would just make it worse right? But if you’ve been working hard and things still suck at some point they either have to turn around or you will start to doubt that you have control over things after all. And you really, really don’t want to doubt things. But they keep creeping in and just when you thought they were going to get better, they kind of got worse.
So then you wonder if this is the “healing crisis” you’ve heard about—where during the healing process, things get worse before they get better because you’re getting at core beliefs. Healing or not, it’s definitely a crisis. You’ve got bills to pay and work to do and a life to live and what if this whole line of reasoning is bullshit? And then you struggle to nip that line of reasoning in the bud. But damn, it’s not fair how easy it is to slip into a terror spiral, but how hard it is to claw your way to a positive thought. Why is that anyway? And while you’re on the subject, why are doughnuts really bad for you, but twigs and leaves are great?
“Why can’t things be easy?” you ask. Where’s your found winning lottery ticket? Where is your miracle? How long do you have to work at being happy before you’re actually happy? How long do you have to pay for old mistakes? Why can’t you watch The Secret or read Think and Grow Rich and then automatically get it and never have to struggle again? Why couldn’t you remember what you knew before you were born? Why are you so far from where you want to be? How long are you going to have to imagine where you want to be instead of looking around at what is?
If that sounds even remotely familiar, I have an answer for you. It may not be what you want to hear, you may wish you knew me in person so you could drive to Denver and smack me. That being the case, I’ll work up to it by saying that all of those questions are my questions. So if they’re familiar to you, know that we are soul mates. The answer is a poem dedicated to me. So here it is:
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
08.10.07
Posted in Discovering the Senses, Make Your Life Easier, Paths to Bliss
at 10:03 am
As you might now if you’ve read anything I’ve written, I am all about abundance these days. I want to surround myself with people and things that make me feel good. I want to live with the assurance that if I release myself to the creative process of life, everything I want will come to me. I wasn’t always this way though coming from the extended family that I did—who often celebrated how long they’d had something rather than it’s functionality or condition. I very much had the mentality that if it worked we used it. I often “made do” with many of the things in my life because they were there and there was no point in spending money to buy something that was better or prettier when what I had worked just fine.
Can you see how “making do” has an energy of stagnation and lack? Now, I’m not talking about the beat up pair of shoes that you love and make you feel like you can walk a million miles when you’re wearing them. That has an energy of love. I’m talking about the things that you’re keeping around just because they work, and you’re having a hard time justifying getting one that is more pleasing because it seems like a waste of resources. This is where I circle back around to the title of this post: I think it’s really important to surround ourselves in aesthetically pleasing things–whatever that means for each of us.
If you read almost any book on organization or motivation, it’s going to tell you that you have to find ways to want to do things. If you’re trying to organize, that means buying baskets and folders that you want to touch and see around the house. Maybe it means finding some fun pens you love to hold and use and see their ink on paper. Have you ever noticed that when you encounter people who have a hobby or a career they love, they have surrounded themselves with the fun gadgets and accoutrements that go along with their activities? When you go over to someone’s house who clearly likes to entertain, they typically have pretty dishes and glasses (not necessarily expensive, but pleasing nonetheless). Families who like to spend time in the living room will often have big, smooshy couches that make you want to dive right in.
My point is, those things display the passion and joy of the people who own them–even more, those things help fuel the passion and joy for those people. I’ll give you an example. I love to cook and bake. I find such creative pleasure in finding a recipe, adding my personal flare, and then receiving the warm appreciation from those who eat what I’ve made. One of the results of my passion for cooking is an obsession with pretty and useful kitchenware. So I have a standing mixer to help me whip up eggs and cream and batter and bread dough. It removes a lot of the grunt work that I find unpleasant. (Some people love to get their hands in floury dough–and I totally appreciate that inclination. Personally, it gives me the heebie jeebies.) I bought some extremely lovely Nigella Lawson ceramic measuring cups. When I look at them, not only do I feel a surge of happiness from their shape and color, but they remind me of the joy Nigella Lawson brings to everything she makes and her life in general.
So what happens when we surround ourselves with things we love? Imagine what your life would be like if everywhere you looked, you saw something that made you smile or feel good. How would you approach doing tasks that you would otherwise feel are unpleasant if you have beautiful or fun tools to do them with? What if you never had to “make do” with anything, but could either find joy in what you have right now, or manifest something that puts you in a happy state of mind?
Transforming your environment into something that pleases you is typically something that happens little by little over time (Extreme Home Makeovers aside, of course), so I’m not suggesting that you throw everything you don’t like away and spend every dime you have to buy new things. Because ultimately this is not about things it’s about an attitude and a state of mind. If we retrain ourselves to think that we deserve to have an environment that brings us joy, to choose to surround ourselves with things we love on a day to day basis, we will be shifting our awareness towards abundance and we will continually affirm that we deserve to live joyful lives.
Share the story of how something you love found its way into your life at the Uncover Your Bliss forums.
Permalink
08.07.07
Posted in Law of Attraction, Make Your Life Easier, Paths to Bliss, Resources
at 7:09 am
Many of you have been playing with the idea of manifestation. You’ve bought into the idea (mostly) that your thoughts actually create what’s going on in your life and if you’re anything like me, that idea has probably filled you with empowerment and dread. “I can create the things I want? Awesome!” “All the crap in my life is my own doing? Gaargh!” This post will be my attempt to remove at least some of the dread from the amazing process of deliberate creation and has been inspired by the book The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent by Esther and Jerry Hicks. The book gelled a lot of ideas that I couldn’t quite reach and has been an invaluable resource in my growth process.
First a refresher: The Law of Attraction states that there are three steps to manifesting what we want. The first step is asking which happens a thousand times a day—every time we have a preference for something. We cannot help but ask and even though we are compelled to drum the point home, focusing on asking for the things we want is unnecessary because our wanting does it for us. The second step is the answering which the Universe does for us so once again our attention is not necessary. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that our attention to how the things we want will come into our lives only limits possibilities and is usually detrimental to the process. The third step is receiving and this is the part of the process that requires our full focus. That is the step I’m going to be talking about in this post.
I’m going to cut right to the chase and tell you that the crap in our lives serves a very useful function. The experiences we don’t want are here to inspire desire for what we do want. If we encounter someone who is mean to us, we automatically ask the Universe to be surrounded by people who treat us with respect. If we can’t pay our bills, we automatically ask to be surrounded by abundance. If our cars break down, we automatically ask to have reliable transportation. If we never had displeasing experiences, we would never feel the joy of the creative process and its results.
Why, oh why, do they have to hang around though, right? If their purpose is to help us ask for things, why don’t they go away after we ask? They stick around because we are focusing our attention on the asking and on why we’re asking instead of receiving what the Universe always brings us in reply. So, we can’t pay our bills and we automatically ask to be surrounded by abundance. And instead of thinking, “Oh yay! This unpaid bill was a reminder that I want abundance and now I’ve asked and now it will naturally flow into my life because the Universe always answers yes! I’m so glad I couldn’t pay my bill!” we think, “I hate the fact that I can’t pay my bills. I wish I had more money. My bank account is so empty. I don’t even want to look at these bills.” Even though the Universe always answers yes and is responding by bringing abundance into our lives we cannot bring it into physical manifestation until we know—until we feel—that it is here.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
07.02.07
Posted in Gratitude, Paths to Bliss
at 11:53 am
In my last post, I discussed coming to terms with our drive to want more and being grateful for what we have now while we want more. Today I’m going to talk about money itself–what it is and what it represents.
If your family was anything like my family, money was a sore subject. Although we were always taken care of, we didn’t have a lot of money and there was always fear that there just wouldn’t be enough. The subject of money was weighted with heavy emotional baggage that centered around fear for the most part. That fear was something I inherited and has shaped many parts of my life. As a result, it’s something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about so I could shift from feelings of fear and lack to feelings of abundance and joy.
What is a fear about money?
At it’s heart, a fear about money is a fear of living without comfort. No one really cares how many green pieces of paper they have, what we care about is what kind of life we’re leading. Do we have housing that meets our needs? Can we buy the food we like? Can we have the things that bring us joy?
Fear about money is a projection into the future that we will not be able to have the things we need to live a comfortable life. It is expressed doubt about the limitless abundance in the Universe. I’m saying that without judgment–I have certainly been in a place where I could not feel the limitless abundance in the Universe. I would say to myself, “That’s all well and good, but where is it?”
What is money?
When I was asking where the abundance is, what I meant was where was the money and the opportunities for making money. The trick is that abundance is a feeling not a thing. Abundance is a surety that everything we need and want are at our fingertips available whenever we need it. Abundance is gratitude magnified by a sense of well-being. Abundance is recognition of the comfort all around us. Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
06.29.07
Posted in Gratitude, Paths to Bliss
at 11:50 am
This is a two part post about money and abundance–something I’ve been thinking about intensely for the past couple of weeks. In Part I, I’ll talk about the idea of wanting more and how it can create emotional conflicts.
I’ve been thinking about money lately–how much I have, how much I want, how much I don’t have, how to get more, how to handle what I do have, how much other people have, how much I need, what I would do with it, etc. 
The more I thought about money, ironically, the harder it was for me to get in touch with Universal Abundance.
As human beings we are biologically and often culturally driven to have, do, and be more. That’s the nature of human existence and it’s a great thing. The drive to grow is how we learn and experience life. Internal conflict about wanting more arises when 1) We think it’s bad to want more and/or 2) Our drive to want more disconnects us from gratitude.
Is it ok to want more?
There are generally two schools of thought when it comes to that question. There’s the “a self-less and humble life is a good life” school and the “unlimited abundance” school. The answer to this (and to all things, really) is that it’s up to you. If you think wanting more is a bad thing, you will vibrate at a state that will not allow more into your life. If you think wanting more is a good thing, you can vibrate at a state that brings more into your life.
I personally feel that there is limitless abundance available in this world. That means everyone can have what they want without taking it from someone else. Living a life of abundance makes us available for others. When we are comfortable and secure in the knowledge that we can always have what we want and need, we can direct our attention to those who need us and what we have to offer.
How can we want more and be grateful for what we have?
The idea of being content with what we have while wanting more seems contradictory, and this is the area I have to consciously work on when my thoughts about money lead me towards negative feelings. Here is what I’ve discovered: being grateful for our current circumstances means recognizing that we are where we are for a purpose that leads us to our highest good. Our highest good is an ever-increasing state of being as we grow and develop who we are. In other words, we’re on a path towards where we need to be and we can simultaneously look around be grateful about where we are on the path now and still keep moving forward.
That said, there are more people in this world than not right now who can’t quite get themselves at the point of contentment. When we’re worried about paying our bills and achieving a certain quality of life, it’s hard to reach for a feeling of gratitude. In Part II, I’ll discuss what money actually is and give some suggestions for altering our perspective about it.
Money,Gratitude,Wanting More
Permalink
06.28.07
Posted in Our Bodies, Paths to Bliss
at 10:15 am
I’m still here, I promise. I’m working on a bunch of things!
I’m on a mailing list for an energy healer’s meetup group and this arrived in my mailbox this morning:
The body you are given will be yours for the duration of your time here. Love it or hate it, accept it or reject it, it is the only one you will receive in this lifetime.. It will be with you from the moment you draw your first breath to the last beat of your heart. Since there is no refund, no exchange policy on this body of yours, it is essential that you learn to transform your body from a mere vessel into a beloved partner and lifelong ally, as the relationship between you and your body is the most fundamental and important relationship of your lifetime. It is the blueprint from which all your other relationships will be built.
The challenge of the first rule is to make peace with your body, so that it can effectively serve its purpose and share its valuable lessons of acceptance, self esteem, respect, and pleasure. Everyone one learn these lessons before they are able to journey successfully through life.
–Andrew Adler
I love it!
Permalink
06.15.07
Posted in Paths to Bliss, Quick Tricks
at 11:48 am
Today’s trick is about letting go of details. It’s time to stop worrying about what you did in the past or what’s going to happen in the future and start concentrating on what you can do right now to make your life better.
If you find yourself worrying about details on a regular basis, remember: The past and the future take care of themselves, the only thing we can really do anything about is right in this moment. All the work we do, we do to heal ourselves now. The rest takes care of itself. We notice the things we need to notice to do what we need to do and the rest doesn’t matter.
Ask yourself, “What can I do right now to make my life better?” Sometimes that’s something small like having a big glass of water or taking a break from whatever you’re doing. Sometimes it’s something big like signing up for a class or releasing old fear. There’s something extremely powerful in continually making decisions about how to make our lives better and then acting on them. The fun part is that the little things build up momentum so we can do the big things.
Permalink
06.13.07
Posted in Paths to Bliss, Quick Tricks
at 4:15 pm
Today’s trick brings us into awareness of mother nature and the cycles of the moon to give us tools for change. Many spiritual traditions and rituals are tied to the phases of the moon and tuning into the goddess energy she provides can help our manifestation practices.
The moon is waning (getting darker) and Friday 6/15 will be a new moon. For people who watch the different phases of the moon a waning moon means it’s time to wind down and purge. A waxing moon (when the moon is getting fuller) is a time for regeneration and manifestation. It’s a time of building energy and momentum. The next couple of days are a great time to take stock of where you are and where you want to be. Spend some quiet time for yourself as the moon goes into hiding. This weekend would be a great time to start a new project or try something different in your life. You will have loving goddess energy to push you forward and support you.
Remember that the people and situations in your life are there to teach you something critical about yourself and who you are. Try and look on them with gratitude rather than frustration and use the moon energy to push through change. Remember that you have all the help you need available to you if you just ask for it.
Permalink
06.11.07
Posted in Paths to Bliss
at 10:21 am
Odds are pretty good that if you are on this website you’ve had someone in your life suggest you meditate. This post is for the people who think, “Yeah! I should meditate! That’s a good idea!” and then never actually do it because they don’t know how or they are unsure where to start or they never seem to find a way to get around to it. I am intimately acquainted with those circumstances because all three could have easily described me.
What’s so great about meditation anyway?
Scientists are studying the brain patterns of Tibetan monks when they meditate and are finding that deep meditation activates dormant parts of the brain, promotes happiness, and allows practitioners to actually control their body temperature. Cool right? But those kinds of things probably won’t actually motivate anyone to meditate because while we’re all for increased brain function and happiness it takes some hard-core meditation skills to perform feats that scientists actually want to study.
And for that matter, when people start going on and on about how great they feel when they meditate and how they just don’t feel right if they don’t do it, it makes us feel guilty when we sit there and our brains keep going on and on and we start to itch in random places and we wonder how long we have to sit like this before we can get up. We obviously must be doing it wrong, which feels lame when all meditating is is sitting quietly and focusing. The good news is you’re probably not doing it wrong, you’re just missing a step and most likely, practice–I’ll get to that in a moment.
People are going on and on about how great they feel, however, because meditation is a wonderful way to find our centers and get in touch with what is really important to us. When done consistently, meditation easily lives up to all the hype. Even at its most basic level, committing to spending some time alone with ourselves in a quiet space is an acknowledgment that our well-being is worth that time and effort. For some people, their meditation time is really the only time they take just for themselves to get in touch with where they are.
Common blocks to starting a meditation practice
There are several blocks I’ve encountered internally and that I’ve noticed in people around me. I’m going to preface this by saying I think these blocks are great. There’s nothing like resistance to show us exactly what we need to face. I’m going to leave out the “I don’t want to” block, because I’m assuming if you’ve gotten this far in the post you’re actually interested in figuring out how to meditate.
I’ll start with the things we tell ourselves:
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
Posted in Paths to Bliss, Quick Tricks
at 8:23 am
Today’s trick helps us reflect on the mind, body, spirit connection and learn another way to appreciate what our bodies do for us.
Our bodies are amazingly literal and listening to yours could give you insight to what’s going on in your life right now. Lower back pain is often a sign that we don’t feel supported or are afraid about money. Cricks in the neck could be a signal that someone in your life is being a “pain in the neck”. Ankle troubles often signal difficulty with being flexible and moving on. Pay attention to what your body is cluing you into today. How are you feeling? What is it telling you? (A good book on this subject that can tell you what emotional issues different physical symptoms correlate to are: Heal Your Body by Louise Hay.)
Permalink
